Anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth may look like another manifestation of a familiar phenomenon. In recent years, the UK has seen repeated demonstrations and rioting over asylum hotels, small-boat crossings and immigration. This time though, the gatherings consisted of black-clad men in balaclavas, organised by a man who calls himself a devoted Christian.

The protesters took to the streets of Dover, occupying key roundabouts and causing traffic chaos. Similar intimidation tactics were used in Portsmouth the following day. My research on the contemporary far right suggests that we should pay attention not only to what these activists believe, but how they organise and what they do.

At the centre of the latest protests is a group called Patriot Platform, a network formed in June connecting anti-migrant and “patriot” formations. This appears to be an evolution in British far-right activism: away from conventional demonstrations and towards something more mobile, networked and potentially vigilante in nature.

Anti-migrant activists monitoring Britain’s coastline are not new. Other research has documented how Dover became an important arena for far-right mobilisation around small-boat crossings from around 2020. This study described an ecosystem of political........

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